A Year Already?

Jack turned 1 yesterday! I'll post pics when I download them to my computer (it's been busy here for us, so I haven't had the time yet). He had a great party with all his family! He got some really great gifts that he already loves playing with (and some great clothes I can't wait for him to grow into).

As everyone knows, Jack was born 6 weeks early. At the time, I wrote out his birth story, but I'm didn't really share it with anyone. It was a very, very scary time for Dean and I, since the doctors and nurses prepared us for the worst. So scary that we didn't even take pictures of him when he was first born because we weren't sure how well he would be and didn't want to have pics. (Looking back, probably not the best idea). So, a year later with our very healthy, active little boy, I thought I'd share his birth story. Warning, it's long because my labor spanned over 2 days, so if you don't want to read it, that's fine.

11/20/2007 (33w5d) – I started having contractions on the ride to work. They weren’t really that close together, maybe every 10-20 minutes, but noticeable. They got closer together, but my work shower was also this day and I didn’t want to miss it. The contractions started getting closer together and more painful. Everyone at work told me that I wasn’t in labor and I wasn’t contracting because contractions weren’t how I was describing them. It was more of an isolated pain way down low instead of tightening of the uterus. I would have called Dean if he wasn’t working this day, but since he was and I didn’t want to take the bus from Salt Lake to Ogden alone, I stayed at work the whole day until I could take the van home. I was contracting a lot in the van ride home, about every 5-7 minutes and sometimes less than that. All I can say is I was sooo grateful a lady who rides with us, her daughter is an L&D nurse and she told me how they tell women how to breath, or else I’m not sure how I would have gotten through the next 24 hours!

Once we were home, the lady that drives the van drove me home to get Dean. He drove me to the hospital where I was first put in triage to be monitored and so they could call my dr. The nurse hooked me up to the monitor, where I was contracting every 1-3 minutes. She then checked me and I was 2cm dilated, 80% effaced and -2 station. They ran some tests, one being a Fetal Fibonectin test (FFN) that basically says if you will go into active labor in the next 96 hours. They did tell us it’s not always accurate. Mine, surprisingly enough, came back negative. Again, not always accurate! I also got my Group B Strep test done and they gave me the first round of steroid shots to help develop his lungs faster. I was also given terbutaline to stop the labor and morphine for the pain. I was admitted for monitoring around 10:00 pm. I was told that I would probably stay in the hospital until he was born, which was kind of scary since I had 6 more weeks until my due date.

11/21/2007 (33w6d) – The morphine worked for my pain for about 4 hours, and then the pain came back in full force! I had been given terbutaline and procardia to stop the labor and that helped for about 4 hours too. On Wednesday around 3:00 pm the contractions started coming right on top of each other. I guess because of how I was laying the monitor wasn’t picking them up and the pregnant nurse I had must have had enough with me because she kept telling me that there was nothing she could do since the monitor showed nothing. She made me seem like I was making it up and it really got to me. Dean was at work, I was in pain and no one believed me. I called Dean to come home (he was working the night shift) and he said he would. I was so glad when 5:00pm came and the nurse’s changed shifts. The new nurse believed me and got something for the pain; even though it didn’t work (they couldn’t give me any more morphine, so they gave me Lortab, which is Vicodin and Tylenol). I was checked about 5:30pm and was almost 5cm dilated, 100% effaced and 0 station. Oh, and the whole time I was still getting the terbutaline and procardia to stop labor. Lot of good that did! I went to the bathroom after being checked and I saw blood, and lots of it. I, of course, freaked out. The nurse assured me it was from being checked, but I didn’t believe her. I had also lost my plug. I started getting a little scared because I *knew* my labor wasn’t going to be stopped (even though they still didn’t say that). After the nurse talked to my dr., she told me they were only prolonging my labor until they could get the second round of steroids in me, which had to be 24 hours after the first shot, so around 9:30 pm. After that there was nothing they could do and no point to try to keep him inside. They started to prepare Dean and I for the worst. A baby that would need to be in the NICU until his due date, a baby who might need to be resuscitated, etc. I was nervous, but I also knew that this was the best hospital with the best NICU in Utah, so we were both in good hands.

I was finally able to get an epidural around 10:00pm and had gotten the last round of steroids, when I was 6cm dilated. Talk about the best thing ever! Dean told me that I wasn’t really out of pain, just more comfortable, but I remember being out of pain.

11/22/2007 (34w and Thanksgiving Day) – At about 2:30am a resident came in a broke my water. I think I was about 8cm dilated at this point. They stopped all meds to stop my labor around 10:00pm, so my labor progressed quickly after that (it progressed quickly with the meds anyway). I was also given an IV of Penicillin because my Group B Strep test hadn’t come back from the lab at this point, so it was for precautionary reasons (even though I found out a few days later I was negative for GBS). The nurses had also told me that I would have to deliver in the OR, since that room was the closest to the NICU and it had a resuscitation room in it and the resuscitation team would be there waiting for him. Again, very scary!

I was checked again at 3:00 am and was 10cm dilated, 100% effaced and -1 station. My dr. wanted me to be at -2 station before I started pushing (the stations are how engaged in the birth canal he is and my dr. wanted him to come down a bit more before I started pushing).

At 3:35 am I was wheeled out of my room and down the hall to the OR. I’m not sure if I was scared because I was about to have a preemie or if I was scared to be pushing a baby out of me. Maybe a little bit of both, but I was quite nervous at this point! I got in the OR, which was freezing and very bright. I think I pushed about 5-6 times before he came out.

Jack was born at 4:05am screaming his head off! The drs. kept saying over and over how wonderful he sounded and how big he was! They took him into the resuscitation room to be evaluated, but they didn’t rush him over there like they warned me. The nurse yelled out that he was 5lbs. 7oz, and 19 inches long, which is quite big for a 34 weeker.

The dr. realized after he was born that I was bleeding because the placenta started coming apart from the uterine lining (which he told me was probably from contracting, since the uterus contracts and the placenta doesn’t). They let Dean go in the room with Jack while they stitched me up.

Dean brought him to me (looking as proud as I’d ever seen him). I took his little cap off and realized he had a head full of hair! I thought he would be bald. I guess that Old Wive’s Tale isn’t true since I didn’t have any heartburn!

Jack never had to be in the NICU, never had to have oxygen and got to come home with me. The nurses in the hospital all called him the Thanksgiving Miracle, since he really was!

Well, there’s his story. If you’ve read the whole thing, God bless you!